Research Scientist, Fintech Optimization - Rakuten Institute of Technology Worldwide (RIT)

Job Description

Business Overview

The AI & Data Division (AIDD), creates powerful, customer-focused search, recommendation, data science, advertising, marketing, price, and inventory optimization solutions to a variety of businesses in commerce, fintech and mobile industries.

Department Overview

Rakuten Institute of Technology Worldwide (RIT), the AI R&D engine of Rakuten Group, is a global network of research labs spanning Tokyo, Singapore, Boston and Paris. We are dedicated to pioneering advancements in core AI technologies, with a focus on machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI.

Our researchers are actively exploring the use case of large language models, intelligent agent systems, and other cutting-edge applications, driving innovation across Rakuten's diverse ecosystem.

Fintech Optimization Team provides solutions regarding financial markets, trading and investment across the Rakuten Group's set of fintech companies. As an internal solution provider to Rakuten's fintech companies, Fintech Optimization Team members must understand business needs, develop technically strong solutions (including through simulation, algorithm, back testing, and theoretical analysis), and then communicate with business personnel about the appropriateness of those solutions.

Fintech Optimization team contains PhD-level researchers from a variety of disciplines, spanning computer science and physics to economics/finance.

Position:

Why We Hire

Fintech Optimization Team is seeking researchers with a background in computer science, mathematical economics, finance, data analysis, algorithm design, and implementation, who can work together on the above research topics.

Position Details

• Define short/middle-term direction of projects while aligning with business, product and engineering team
• Design solutions to solve defined business problems. Also, appropriately implement the designed algorithms and evaluate their performance
• Work with Project Management team to gather business requirements, define suitable KPIs and guide members on how to validate if the solutions built meets/exceeds the requirements/KPIs
• Support engineering teams and product teams to adapt prototypes in production
• Support junior-level research scientists
• Contribute to the advancement of science via writing papers, attending conferences and submitting patent proposals

Mandatory Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Mathematical Physics, Mathematical Economics, Finance or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Proficiency in designing and implementing algorithms, considering computational complexity
• Ability to effectively communicate with researchers, engineers, and business personnel in English
• Ability to work independently and drive projects forward
• Proficiency to analyze and visualize data using Python
• Understanding of statistics and machine learning, with some practical experience
• Development experience in a Unix/Linux environment
• Proficient in code management (e.g., Git)
• Interest and curiosity about financial markets

Desired Qualifications

• Interest and experience in LLM and AI agent
• Demonstrated interest and proficiency in developing technological solutions to problems in finance, at the enterprise scale
• Strong international publication records
• Demonstrated project achievements, such as GitHub repositories
• Coding skills: Proficiency in at least one of the programming languages Rust or Haskell, or the ability to quickly learn these languages
• Experience leading research members for more than 2 years
• Experience in a field related to high-frequency trading
• Ability to effectively communicate with business personnel in Japanese

Other Information:

Additional information on English Qualification

English: Fluent

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